`Holde Her at the Oeconomicke Rule of the House':1 Anna of Denmark And

CHAPTER NINE `Holde her at the Oeconomicke rule of the House': 1 Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Finances, 1589-1603 Maureen M. Meikle ANNA OF DENMARK married King James VI in 1589. 2 She was the second daughter of Frederick II of Denmark and his consort Sophia of Mecklen- burg. Anna was only fifteen years old when she landed at Leith in May 1590, yet she quickly learned the ways of her adopted country, its language and its court. The Scottish Court had been without a resident queen since the abdication of James' mother, Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567. Changes were therefore inevitable. To begin with another household had to be established for the new queen with its own financial administration. This was not unusual as most European monarchies had separate households for their kings and queens.3 Anna's household was funded from her jointure, which consisted of Falkland and Linlithgow Palaces with a third of their demesne. After her marriage the lands of the earldom of Ross and the Abbey of Dunfermline (north of the Forth) were added. This made a large estate by Scottish standards, though it was not excessively affluent in comparison to Western European states. Scotland was not a rich country and was frankly incomparable to the riches of Anna's native Denmark. Denmark included Norway in those days and had a lucrative income from shipping tolls levied from vessels passing through the Sound. Many lavish items in Anna's trousseau would not be unpacked until a suitable palace had been found for them in Scotland. Although rapid repairs were made to Holyrood prior to her arrival, it would be at the rebuilt abbey of Dunfermline that Anna finally established her own household. Anna's Danish advisors appointed the first managers of her household, who were later replaced by Scottish courtiers. This was part of the naturalisation process that most queen consorts of foreign birth were expected to go through in Scotland and France. It was more acceptable for female retainers to stay on, than men who might threaten the political order. 4 Therefore only a handful of Danish servants remained after a year, and only one stayed with Anna throughout the rest of her life. This was her devoted maid Anna Roos.' Anna's first encounter with Scottish Court finances was the negotiations surrounding her tocher (anglice dowry) and subsequent jointure. Admittedly these negotiations were carried out by her Danish advisors, ro6 Maureen M. Meikle but they would have kept the youthful queen consort informed of their discussions and diplomatic efforts. Queen Sophia was adamant that a good dower had to be agreed in exchange for her daughter's dowry of 75,000 rixdollars or ioo,000 gold florins, which was approximately £rso,000 Scots. James had hoped for a larger dowry, but the Danes drove a hard bargain. The agreed jointure was thought to be worth twice her tocher and was probably the best the impoverished Scottish exchequer could offer. 6 The Danish ambassadors had suggested that she receive an annual income of £4,000 Scots for her daily expenses. The final total was £4541 Scots in money, plus substantial amounts of wheat, barley, oats, capons, hens and geese. In 1590 this may have been adequate, but inflation and the depreciation of the Scots pound would eat away at this amount.' James lost no time in distributing the tocher amongst the royal burghs in the form of a loan, with interest set at ten per cent. Edinburgh headed the list with £40,000 Scots, whilst smaller burghs such as St Andrews and Haddington received £2.,000 Scots. However, what had begun as deposit accounts turned into current accounts within a few years. This was due to heavy spending by both James and Anna. Nevertheless, most of this money went on quelling the earl of Bothwell's rebellion (1593) and paying for the baptism of the royal couple's first child, Prince Henry.8 1 In July 594 Anna had borrowed back £4000 Scots from St Andrews and Anstruther. This was to support `the apparelling of hir laydis maydynis of honnour, gentilwemen and serving wemen' at Henry's baptism celebra- tions. Her everyday household finances were insufficient to support extra expense such as this. As much of her tocher had been spent, future extraordinary expenditure would have to come from borrowing and this would be detrimental to Scottish Court finances.' Anna's ordinary household spending was high as she had so many people to feed, clothe and pay wages to. In 1591 an account of the queen's household lists many people including her master of household, master stabler, secretary, carver, preacher, tailor, furrier and goldsmith. They all had their own servants within the household, again to be provided for by the queen. Then there were many lesser ranking servants of Anna such as `ane moir', `Hans, maister cuke', `a notair of the expenssis of the quenis house' and several pages and lackeys.to At the royal dining tables there was a strict segregation of the king's and queen's households. They sat at separate tables with foodstuffs furnished from their own supplies. Nothing was wasted as surplus foodstuffs were passed on to other tables in a descending social order. The top tables had wine, meats, bread and ale, whilst those at the bottom tt only received bread and ale. The meats included were typical of an elite household with beef, mutton, veal, capon, chicken, lamb, fish, dove, Anna of Denmark and Scottish Court Finances, 1589-1603 1107 tongue, geese and wild meat in season. The only exceptions to all this meat were forty apples and ioo eggs. We know that Anna was parti- cularly fond of beer, rather than the inferior Scots ale, and James ordered beer especially from London for her in i 595• As it was made from hops, English beer travelled well, but it was another example of James and Anna's expensive tastes.12 Extravagance such as this would become the basic cause of the royal couple's financial troubles. Anna managed to remain within her basic budget until i 596, when her household expenses doubled. They doubled again by r6oi and by 1603 they were approximately £23,110 Scots. Even allowing for rapid inflation this was a huge increase that owes more to extravagance than common sense. Her children were accounted for separately in the treasurer's accounts and therefore did not contribute to these increasing costs." Anna found temporary relief through her new goldsmith and moneylender George Heriot. Heriot acted in an unofficial capacity from May 1 593 until he was made Anna's court-appointed goldsmith in 1597. His career really took off in 1593 with this new patronage. It was a relationship of mutual benefit for the nobility and lairds placed orders with Heriot as a result of his work for Anna. 14 For her part Anna adored jewels, yet she also appreciated that money could he borrowed against them. An intriguing note, obviously scribbled down quickly records Anna asking 'Gordg heriatt I ernestlie dissyr youe present to send me tua hundrethe pundes vithe all expidition hecaus I man best me away presentlie'. The note is undated, but probably was written in 1 594 when Anna was still perfecting her use of the Scots language in written form. 1 ' He presumably obliged his most important patron as this note has survived in the Heriot papers. This pattern of commissioning jewels and borrowing money against them continued for many years. Anna's love of jewellery is well known and accounts for many accusa- tions of frivolity levelled against her. Anna had been accustomed to wearing expensive baubles since her childhood in Denmark. She had brought a jeweller from Denmark called Jacob, but he made off with For this crime he and his accomplice, some of her treasures in May 1594. one of Anna's French footmen called Guilliam, were arrested in North Shields and sent hack to Scotland for execution. 16 This was fortuitous for George Heriot, who now slipped into the role of chief goldsmith to the queen. Their accounts continued until 116116 though, interestingly, Heriot had none of the sophistication of his later years in 1 593 and duly itemised Anna's accounts in the Scots tongue. This meant, for example, that exquisite earrings were described as 'twa hingeris for lugis set with sevin dossane rubyes'. 17 Whilst it is true that she spent a large amount of money on jewels, it should be remembered that she was the queen consort and was entitled to wear the finest jewels that George Heriot could make for io8 Maureen M. Meikle her. Anna also gave away jewels as gifts, so she cannot be accused of spending vast amounts on herself. At first, she had been able to meet most of Heriot's bills. For instance in r 59 4 she instructed the chamberlain of Dunfermline to pay Heriot 83z crowns out of the Abbey's rents for jewellery and goldsmith work. This work included elaborate commis- sions for fans inlaid with oriental agate, bracelets of gold and pearl and a horse set with diamonds and rubies. The jewels became even more elaborate and expensive as time wore on and included embroidered clothes with interwoven jewels such as 'ane stomacher inbroiderit with gold and silver' at twenty-three crowns. 18 Very few of these royal jewels have survived, which is a pity as Anna's jewels were worth at least £400,000 sterling when she died in 1619.19 James was as good a patron of Heriot as his wife, so her level of expenditure was not a singular vice.

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